37.
On their arrival at Rome, the ambassadors of the allies were admitted to audience before those of the king. Their discourse, in general, was filled up with invectives against Philip.
[2]
[p. 1437]What produced the greatest effect on the minds of the senate was, that, by pointing out the relative situations of the lands and
[3??]
seas in that part of the world, they made it manifest to every one, that if the king held Demetrias in Thessaly, Chalcis in Eubœa, and Corinth in Achaia, Greece could not be free;
[4]
and they added, that Philip himself, with not more insolence than truth, used to call these the fetters of Greece.
[5]
The king's ambassadors were then introduced, and when they were beginning a long harangue, a short question cut short their discourse: —Whether he was willing to yield up the three above-mentioned cities? They answered, that they had received no specific instructions on that head: on which they were dismissed, the negotiation being left unsettled. Full authority was given to Quinctius to determine every thing relative to war and peace.
[6]
As this demonstrated clearly that the senate were not weary of the war, so he, who was more earnestly desirous of conquest than of peace, never afterwards consented to a conference with Philip; and even gave him notice that he would not admit any embassy from him, unless it came with information that he was retiring from the whole of Greece.
Livy. History of Rome by Titus Livius, books twenty-seven to thirty-six. literally translated, with notes and illustrations, by. Cyrus Edmonds. York Street, Covent Garden, London. Henry G. Bohn. John Child and son, printers, Bungay. 1850. 3.
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